The eurozone's deflation has been halted

Uwe Kiehl of team Germany I breathes on the surface during a match at the Underwater ice hockey Championships in lake Weissensee in Austria February 17, 2013. REUTERS/Michael Dalder The eurozone's deflation has been halted, at least for now.

Consumer prices in the euro countries neither fell nor rose in the year to April, with CPI showing a +0% reading, as analysts had expected. That ends several months of negative figures, for the time being.

Europe recorded negative inflation rates between December and March, with a low of -0.6% in January.

Though eurozone inflation rates had been trending lower for an extended period of time, the slump in oil prices tipped the bloc into negative territory at the end of last year.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile prices like food and energy, is still rising, but at a slow pace: +0.6% in the year to April.

Here's the breakdown by sector, where you can see the massive impact that oil prices have had:

Eurostat

Here's Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics on Thursday's data:

The general picture remains one of very weak underlying price pressures in the euro-zone, reflecting both the weakness of pipeline cost pressures and the spare capacity left in the economy. The latter was underlined by the March labour market figures showing the unemployment rate holding at 11.3% for the third successive month. While the trend in unemployment still appears to be downwards, it is far too slow to prompt any meaningful pick-up in wage pressures in the foreseeable future. In short, it is of some relief that the bout of technical deflation has been shorter-lived than we had feared. But it could return if oil and commodity prices fall again and even continued low inflation will hinder the indebted countries' fiscal consolidation efforts.